


PaRRty haaAAAARDDDDDDDD

by mediarahan



Series: Starving Musicianstuck [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, Starving Musicianstuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-22 15:18:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mediarahan/pseuds/mediarahan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vriska pregames tours whether she's babysitting or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chicago, Illinois

**Author's Note:**

> WOW THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN MONTHS AGO but I've gone back to school and stuff so congratulations me, don't know how frequently I'll be updating this just idk man idk x_x I'LL DO ANYTHING TO KEEP YOUR LOYAL ATTENTION THOUGH SO LIke whatever  
> Also warnings uh Karkat swears to fuckall a fuckton also there's a racial slur in there somewhere.  
> I have never used so many hyphens in my life dear jesus.

“OH BY THE WAAAAAAAAY,” Vriska yelled from the “couch” in the other room, causing Nepeta to avert her focus and drop her partially-unzipped suitcase, “I think there’s gonna be a party tonight. Here or somewhere. If I leave you alone you’ll get eaten by the roaches.” Nepeta winced and quickly gathered her things back into the case, zipping it immediately, and wishing Equius’ usual pessimistic fretting had been just that.  


“Okeedokee,” She called back, trying to sound chipper as usual. She hoped to God they’d be going somewhere else… and that Vriska partied with cleaner people.  


She smoothed the fabric of her hoodie-functioning-as-a- shirt-dress and wondered what to do next. She scanned the room for… well, for anything besides busted furniture and spider nests. Nada.  
She to a leisurely stroll into the adjoining room… same business.  
She poked her head around the corner into the kitchen/foyer, wondering if it would be safe to cook up some real food. The distinct smell of it was just the icing on top of the cupcake: terrible idea.  
As she began to panic about having to spend Two Whole Days here, her prayers were answered and the momentary deus ex machina of a beeping chat client caught her attention.  


She took a cat-like leap across the kitchen to poke her head into the room where Vriska was sitting with her way-too-nice laptop on a coffee table. She side-eyed her new visitor and jerked her head, signaling the o-k to come in.  


Examining the “couch” upon which Vriska was “seated” brought the anxious thoughts right back, but then-  


“-That fucking jackass dildo-eating-“  


“Hi, Karkat!” Vriska chirped, waving at her screen as he came into view. Nepeta let out a happy gasp and no longer cared what was touching her butt as she plopped down on the couch, making sure she would be visible.  


“SOLLUX…” He let out a final, angry, drawn-out growl.  


“So,” Vriska prodded, expecting him to alert her that his tirade was over and she couldn’t have cared less about it in the first place.  


“I swear to fuck, I SWEAR to FUCK if he keeps changing the dates I will fucking, VRISKA I FUCKING SWEAR-“  


“Karkat,” She snapped, then once she had his attention, gestured to Nepeta and affected a corny evil-henchman voice, “The precious cargo is safe.”  
Nepeta grinned and waved too-eagerly, Karkat scoffed.  


“Hey, Nepeta,” He said a lot reluctant and a little embarrassed.  
Just as she opened her mouth to say something back, Vriska cut her off.  


“Nepeta and I are gonna party hard,” She said with a gratuitous flip of her hair.  


“For two whole fucking days?!” Nepeta could tell, Karkat was getting riled all over again, but Vriska got the jump on her before any damage control could be done.  


“Calm your mestizo ass right the fuck down there, partner,” She held her palms up to the screen. Nepeta gave it a sorry look as Karkat’s impending spat became apparent.  


“Where the fuck did you even learn that word, like, what, did ‘spic’ finally become too fucking blazé for you?”  
And oh, was Nepeta ready to hide in a closet, call Equius, and get on a train to KC right the fuck now.  


“Oh why, do you miss it?” Vriska cooed, "Is my being culturally sensitive just as bad?"  
She saw Vriska baring her scary-sharp canines via grinning when she briefly peeked through her fingers.  


“No, you’re just a fucking twit, Vriska,” Karkat said a little more calmly and quietly, noticing Nepeta’s proverbial tail fluffing and straightening, “Anyways, before someone had to show off how much she’s learned from Wikipedia this week, I was gonna tell you that Sollux did us a real fucking favor and practically gave the tour the yard job of the century. “  


“What, he drove all over it?”  


“Shut the fuck up, Vriska. I’m sending you guys the new tour dates.”  
She and Nepeta leaned forward as the link they were sent opened to a flood of dates and places. After a few moments of scanning, Vriska chimed in softly,  


“I don’t think I can take off an entire month and a half of work, man. “  


“Fucking idiot,” Karkat said in solidarity, “His semi-successful ass better be paying for our fucking food.”  


Nepeta let out a sound, wanting to remind them of all the food she’d packed, but her band mates were both be staring despondently at their respective shoes.  


“Well um,” She decided it was in the band’s best interest for her to give them a pep talk, the nervousness slowly dropping with each word, “we do get to spend all of this time together! Like real furriends, and we’ll get to play together a lot, too, so by the end of the tour our band will be even better!”  


Vriska rolled her eyes, “Might be a good after-party or two somewhere in there.”  


“Yeah,” Karkat mumbled, “It’d be worth it if we could finally get our fucking act together.”  


There was yet another grumbly silence before Vriska declared it was time to get hammered and the three said their goodbyes.  
Vriska kicked her laptop closed and dug her phone out of her pocket. After sitting in silence as she scrolled through messages, she got off the couch and began gather coats and boots and eighteen-packs from around the apartment.  


“Get your ass in gear, cat-kid, we gotta go party our sorrows away.”


	2. A small, dingy basement dwelling in Chicago.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the end, Vriska and Nepeta bond over drawing on the faces of the fallen.

Nepeta had worked hard to convince herself that the next two days would be a lot of fun as she and Vriska rode the train to wherever it was they were going, massive amounts of alcohol and God-knows-what-else being smuggled conspicuously under their coats. She had really, really tried. 

But when Vriska kicked down the door to a dingy basement (cleaner than Vriska’s place… but still pretty bad) from which definite party-sounds were emanating, her optimism scurried the fuck out of there to go take a cat nap somewhere more peaceful. 

She bit the inside of her cheek as they descended the stairs, Vriska muttering orders to “take out the liquor, we gotta make a snackrifice”, the noises getting louder and louder and coming to a final crescendo as the people inside greeted Vriska and Vriska greeted them with even more volume. 

And before she knew it, Nepeta was alone. She’d tailed Vriska into the kitchen to put down the booze and wondered to herself why they had to carry it all the way here. The supply was copious, and that was maybe an understatement.  
She checked to see if the coast was clear. Vriska hadn’t even introduced her, and this didn’t seem like the kind of place where an embarrassing first impression would do her much good. 

Once she was certain that her bandmate was captivating everyone in the other room, along with catching a whiff of a very potent smell coming from their direction, she approached the liquor-laden counter.  
The first bottle on the right was one Vriska had shoved into her hands before leaving, full of what looked like filtered lake water.  
She was tempted to text Equius as and ask him what in the world it might be, but the poor guy wouldn’t get any sleep between the worrying and the disappointment.  
She sighed and moved down the line. 

After a tower of Pabst Blue Ribbon, there was a bottle of pretty, honey-brown liquid, but it was almost empty. Though she had a pang of guilt about it, Nepeta unscrewed the cap and sniffed.  
Immediately she gagged and made a few kitten sneezes. No way was she putting that in her mouth. 

The next few bottles were more of the same, until she reached a big white one with a little sunset and palm trees. She touched it cautiously and found that it was extremely sticky. Her grip grew a little firmer; stickiness was a promising omen of sweetness.  
She removed the cap and was greeted by the cloying scent of a tropical paradise. She quickly took one excited sip. 

 

Vriska had come into the kitchen in search of her little feline friend, sloppily draping her arm around Nepeta and scratching imaginary cat ears in her strawberry blonde hair as soon as she found her.  


“Nep… Nep baby you are so little. You are so fucking little,” Vriska crooned into the top of her head.  


Nepeta, who had now gone through a third of the bottle she had picked up and refused to put down, was bouncing up and down and had nothing to say besides, “This is so good! This is SO good!!” between sips.  
Some of Vriska’s pals had joined them, pouring themselves more drinks, smelling especially strange, and Nepeta was pulled into the party. They slowly migrated to the living room, featuring a couch barely more passable than Vriska’s and several more-intact loveseats. The group sat and talked and behaved themselves, save Vriska, who was affectionately nuzzling her bony cheek against the side of Nepeta’s face.  


Nepeta didn’t care though. This stuff was SO good, she got more excited with every drink she took. The conversations of Vriska’s equally dirty, sleazy friends were more exciting. The strange smell was more exciting. The logo on the PBR cans was more exciting.  
But Nepeta’s excitement couldn’t top that of Vriska’s when another guest arrived. 

“JoooOOOOOHN!” Vriska’s shriek increased in shrillness and she left Nepeta’s side to leap at the bottom of the stairs. She caught John by the thighs and proceeded to squeeze them with fervor as he waved to the room. 

Nepeta waved back meekly; John had sold his old keyboard to her for really cheap and made her a star, after all! But aside from being a nice guy who liked movies a whole lot, she didn’t know too much about him. 

Vriska quickly dragged him into the kitchen to presumably get him Totally Plastered, and Nepeta was left to her magical sugary liquor and not much else. 

“hEY So,” Just as Nepeta was growing concerned that things were about to become less exciting, a girl with a mohawk and far too many dangly earrings flopped onto the loveseat next to Nepeta’s end of the couch, pointing and slurring and just barely catching Nepeta’s attention, “Vriska said you were a caaaaaaaaaat,” She drew out her vowels, much like Vriska, but probably just because she was drunk. 

Nepeta, despite being reinvigorated, was only able to shake her head to the stranger.

“Bummerrrrrrrrr,” The girl jingled loudly as she rolled onto her back and got an upside-down view of the supposed cat-girl, “I looooove cats, man.”

“Me too,” Nepeta smiled nervously, “They’re my fafurite!” 

She immediately regretted the fur pun, but after a blank stare, the girl broke out into a huge grin complete with a fit of giggles. A bassy, peppy song started playing and someone turned up the volume, and an even brighter look crossed the girl's face.

“Oh good yeS, let’s DaaAAAANCE,” She shouted, grabbing Nepeta by the bottle-free hand and yanking them both out of their respective seats. She was cast into the fray of bumping and grinding, and after a big swig of tropical paradise, did some bumping and grinding of her own.  
But Vriska’s friends were a little greasy and smelly, much like… well, all of her bandmates, and halfway into the second songs-worth of dancing she started feeling the teensiest bit grossed out.

Just in time, “DON’T THROW IT,” boomed from the kitchen. 

After some indistinguishable mumbling and a nervous lowering of the music, John emerged carrying an over-excited Vriska on his back and an empty glass bottle in his hand.

“Guys,” He said, setting her down on the floor and taking a seat next to her, “Guys we GOTTA play spin the bottle.” 

There was a collective groan and a fair share of “ugh, Jooohhhnnn"ing as everyone sloppily tried to sit on the floor in a circle. A couple were out as soon as their rear ends hit the floor, and were unceremoniously pushed aside. 

Nepeta’s new friend took a seat next to her, giggling something about “fucking John I fucking hate this game”. Not wanting to say anything about her total lack of experience with bottle-spinning and people-smooching, she huddled closer to the jingliest person she’d ever met. It might cause enough confusion to spare her. 

Once everyone was as settled as they were going to get, John handed Vriska the bottle and they exchanged a look that was either adoring or sarcastic or likely both. 

Then Vriska broke into a mischievous grin and thrust the bottle in Nepeta’s direction. Her spine immediately straightened. 

“Ah… uhhhh…” She started squirming, trying to get away from the thing, debating taking another big swig…

Vriska’s face softened, but only she and John seemed to notice. Nepeta relaxed a bit and cocked her head to the side.

“I uh,” Vriska stuttered a little, “I think Nepeta knows what she’s doing.”

She stared nervously back at Vriska, but through some winking-eyebrow-wiggling-special-bandmate Morse code, Nepeta understood… a little. 

“This baby knows what she’s doing,” Vriska shoved the bottle into Nepeta’s free hand, “She’s a PROFESSIONAL matchmaker.” 

Vriska fell to the side a bit and winked at her. Nepeta grinned in return. Without much real direction, she had to wing it a bit, but she was full of liquid courage and set the bottle down in the center. She spun, checked who it landed on, pondered, and pointed. They kissed. It was ultimate real-life, instant gratification shipping power.

The first time wasn’t her best. The second was magic. Soon, she was on a roll, and she didn’t have to touch ANY of the smelly people, but they were all touching one another, and it was fabulous. 

When the bottle finally landed on Vriska, the two exchanged looks. 

“I saved your ass back there,” Vriska’s cocked eyebrow seemed to be saying. 

Nepeta was very pleased with Vriska's rescue attempt and smiled and nodded back at her. She took a deep breath, lifted her arm, stiffened her wrist, and pointed as dramatically as possible at John. "SMOOCH!" She commanded.

All hell broke loose… in a good way, mostly.

With Vriska and John now making out with gusto on the floor, limbs flailing and hitting everyone nearby, the game was silently declared over. Nepeta smiled to herself and surmised they had been planning that all night, like a perfect movie moment or something. Seeing such an affectionate side to Vriska warmed her heart.

Knowing her work was done, Nepeta sat back against the couch and finished her drink. 

 

A now-melded Vriska and John sidling up next to her roused Nepeta from her happy, soupy daze. 

“Hey,” Vriska rasped. Nepeta tried not to stare as John moved down to Vriska’s neck, “Hey,” she repeated, clearer this time, “Nice goin’.” 

Nepeta chuckled shyly. Trying to avert her gaze from the makeout session of such gravity that she might get sucked in, she looked down at her hands folded around the neck of the now empty bottle.

“Um… thanks,” She said quietly in return, “For helping me out back there.” 

Vriska gave her a very earnest look, "Same."

“And for bringing me! I had a lot more fun than I thought I would."

“Good!” Vriska smiled, and Nepeta tried not to wince and jerk her head in the other direction as John started biting and Vriska started writhing, “But hey, I know for a fact you could be having even more fun.” She unwound a hand from John’s hair and reached deep under a couch cushion. After a long, hard search, her arm emerged holding a single, surprisingly clean black Sharpie. “I keep this here for when people fall asleep. I think you know what to do with it.” She handed Nepeta the marker with the most genuine smile she’d ever given her. Nepeta smiled back, accepting the token of ultimate mischief. “We’ll be back there,” Vriska grunted as she wrenched herself and John off the ground and threw a thumb over her shoulder. 

Nepeta nodded as made note of the doorway Vriska had pointed at quickly, wanting to get away from the increasingly sexual spectacle as soon as possible. She was a little too dizzy to make it to her feet, but once she was on her knees, she scampered to the other side of the room and uncapped the potent pen, staring down at the blank page of her first of many victim’s faces.


	3. HANGOVERS, YEAAAAHHHHHHH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> suddenly: friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am sorry i decided to publish this chapter drunk how appropriate what is summary

In the morning, Nepeta experienced unmatched grogginess. Her back hurt, and everyone else’s backs looked like they were hurting, too. When she had mustered the strength to prop her weight up on one arm and peek into the room she had fallen asleep just outside of, Vriska and John were tangled up with some sheets, sleeping quite comfortably and soundly. 

Nepeta sighed contentedly and was tempted to fall right back down and snooze herself, but as her head hit the floor and she peeked one eye open, she caught her handiwork in action. There were muffled giggles from everyone in the room as they noticed one another’s new facial decorations, laughing as they tried to describe them, or as some chose not to describe them at all. She dozed off again with a warm, fuzzy feeling in her heart. 

Vriska’s foot was gently nudging her when she next woke up. She rolled over to look up at her and went wide-eyed and red-faced as soon as she noticed Vriska was wrapped loosely in a sheet.

“Just making sure you’re alive, kid,” Vriska yawned, “John and I are gonna, uh, hang out a bit more if you wanna go back to sleep for a bit.”

Nepeta nodded, eager to close her eyes again. The grog had all but dissipated during her short nap.

The third time she woke up was to the sound of voices and clinking bottles.  
John and Vriska looked to be finishing cleaning up with the help of the person that Nepeta assumed lived here.  
She sat up, stretched her back and wondered if she should have helped out… but she imagined her first real hangover excused her little social transgression. 

Vriska and John came out of the kitchen and sat on the couch, so engrossed in their conversation they didn’t even notice her until she got tired of hearing about how far Nic Cage’s hairline could physically recede and proceeded to crawl between them.

“You guys aren’t leaving room for Jesus!” Nepeta shouted, sounding a little more sincere and pouty than she had intended to.

They both started, wide-eyed and gaping at her. Vriska suddenly smiled and laughed. Nepeta sighed in relief that her joke actually came out as, well… a joke. 

“You almost had me there, Nepeta,” she put an arm around her and leaned over to John, “I think I gotta get this kid home before she means it.” 

Charming as it was, Nepeta wasn’t been entirely cool with having to practically drag Vriska off of John’s face when it came time for their “long goodbye”. 

 

After a few naps on the train home, then tangled up on the couch, Nepeta and Vriska basked in the headache inducing late afternoon glow of their hangovers together. 

“You drank that whole damn bottle of Malibu, girl,” Vriska laughed weakly, muffled by the blanket she was cocooned in.

“I guess I did,” Nepeta responded, hugging her knees to her chin a little tighter, feeling a pang of guilt about it. Vriska looked across the couch at her and cocked an eyebrow.

“Nepeta,” she smiled apologetically, “It’s cool! Really. It was cool. I didn’t even think you’d be able to stomach a beer, let alone a whole damn bottle of sweet but hard liquor. “

“It was really good…” Nepeta muttered, looking down at her knees. Vriska laughed heartily in return.

“Sure looked like it! You were having the time of your life,” Her expression faltered, “I mean, you were, right?”

Nepeta looked back up at her, “I…” Vriska stared back nervously. She had spent a lot of time antagonizing Nepeta online and when they got the rare chance to get together and rehearse, and maybe she just meant it endearingly, but last night had been a very different experience.  
“Well, yeah, actually! I don’t know how Equius’ll feel about it but if you’ve got my back then I have no regrets!” 

Vriska smiled back at her, “Sure, kid. I guess he’s a little uh… edgy about this kind of stuff, isn’t he?”

Nepeta nodded, “He can be a real party pooper sometimes. I know he’s worried about my safety, but he can be kind of a… a horse’s ass about it.”

Vriska chuckled at her pun.  
Then Nepeta gasped.

“Oh! Oh my goodness! Oh no!”  
She dashed out of the room, leaving Vriska craning her neck in bewilderment. Nepeta ran back in carrying her laptop.  
“Equius must have been trying to reach me all day! He said he was going to call me from the hotel!”  
She set it down on the coffee table and opened it up. Sure enough, about a dozen messages from Equius popped up. Nepeta hurriedly hooked up her webcam as an impatient Equius on the screen adjusted his sunglasses.

“Hi Equius!” She said, waving enthusiastically. 

“Ah! Nepeta, I was getting very worried about you. “

“It’s okay, Vriska and I are having lots of fun together!” She explained, a little desperately, grinning over at Vriska.  
She waved meekly at Equius, wondering if she was about to intrude on something unpleasant.  
He looked surprised, then ashamed of himself for showing that he was surprised, and let out a small, “oh”.  
“Yes, everything is great here! Vriska and I went out last night and she and John even have a little –“  
Suddenly Vriska snapped her head towards the kitchen and shouted, “Uh oh Nepeta, something in the kitchen just caught on fire we gotta go, nice seeing you Equius have fun driving tomorrow bye!”

She slammed Nepeta’s laptop shut and exhaled heavily. Nepeta looked around for something on fire. 

“Vriska I don’t think…” 

Vriska reached her arm out to put a hand on Nepeta’s shoulder, missing a couple times at first before scooting closer to get the full effect. 

“No, Nepeta, there’s not a fire in the kitchen. Sorry to alarm you.”

“What is it then?” Nepeta looked worried. This was either some serious new-friend-shenanigans, or she’d just totally blown it.

“What ever you were gonna say about John and I,” She peered over her glasses, “Don’t. Do not tell ANYONE.” 

Nepeta pouted and started stuttering an apology. 

“Please,” Vriska said, trying to sound less harsh.

“But you guys…! Then… but… why?” Nepeta sounded like she was about ready to cry. 

“Oh jesus,” Vriska pinched the bridge of her nose, “Oh no, no no no, no no no no, don’t… okay. Okay, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m gonna get us some fat glasses of water and we are gonna have a serious Serket’s Secrets 101 session. Okay?”

Nepeta nodded slowly. 

Vriska sighed and unraveled herself from her blankets. Nepeta waited patiently as she got up and disappeared into the kitchen. She came back out with two (shockingly clean) large measuring cups full of water. 

“Sorry about the measuring cups, don’t think it would reflect too well on my hostessing abilities if you died just from drinking the water,” Vriska said as she handed one to Nepeta.  
She set hers down on the coffee table, sat on the edge of the couch, and dropped her face into her hands.  
“So uh,” She started, but was at a loss for what to say.

“Did I see something I wasn’t supposed to?” Nepeta asked into the rim of her cup.

“Nah,” Vriska chewed the inside of her cheek, “I mean I trust you with this information more than anyone else in our weird little band, I guess. But it’s uh… complicated.”

“You mean you guys… aren’t… dating?” Nepeta inquired, a little heart-broken.

“I mean sort of but not really but like not exclusively and…” Vriska stopped rambling and looked Nepeta in the eye, “I think he’s pretty cool and he thinks I’m pretty cool so obviously we kind of have a thing, but in real life he’s kind of lame, and I’m kind of the raddest bitch ever so uh…” 

Nepeta didn’t seem to be following.

“You’re… embarrassed by him?” She seemed a bit shocked, “But you guys are so cute together!” She winced after it came out of her mouth, “I mean, you’re really good movie buddies and you seem to be really into one another, so it… it maybe makes a lot of sense?” 

Vriska grimaced, “Nah, you’re really right Nepeta. It could be a pretty okay thing. But I got a lot of options, you know? And they all live so damn far away. I don’t know. He’s the least embarrassing, but he’s still pretty embarrassing,” Nepeta hummed in response. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Sorry I brought it up. I didn’t know it was so…” 

“It’s okay, Nepeta. I figured you wouldn’t be too judgmental about it.”

“I was excited!” Nepeta perked up for a moment, “But now I’m just disappointed…” 

“Sorry.”

“Me too.” 

“You’re really a sweet kid, Nepeta,” Vriska confessed. Nepeta smiled a little.

They exchanged looks. 

“By the way, some trustafarian is having a kegger at his big mansion tonight, so drink up because you’re gonna need your energy.”

Nepeta’s jaw would have dropped to the floor if she hadn’t been trying to maintain that cozy friendship moment for as long as possible.


End file.
